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Music123 had a very successful program at CJ. Then, their CEO decided it was too easy for an affiliate to make money with them and he tried every possible tricks to don't pay us. The last blow was to switch to LinkShare. GoodBye.

You're lucky to learn about their bankrupcy and to have the possibility to remove your links from your website. LinkShare is able to keep their links for months and to don't pay you at the end.

Can't never understand about the not paying aff issue. It's still one of the best deal for companies cos they will have a lower acquisition cost than other channels, print, tv or even PPC. In the long run, the company is getting a customer for live (unless they mess their order up).

My program is a lead generation but I am hoping that it will change and it's a one time use customer and we still pay...

Can't never understand about the not paying aff issue. It's still one of the best deal for companies cos they will have a lower acquisition cost than other channels, print, tv or even PPC. In the long run, the company is getting a customer for live (unless they mess their order up).
My program is a lead generation but I am hoping that it will change and it's a one time use customer and we still pay...

That's a big flaw for a network taking around 30% of your income to collect your money. LinkShare don't have an escrow account for their affiliates. They don't even inform the affiliates of a possible problem and do nothing to help them to get paid. Wherevever you are, thank you Messers!
At least the AM from music123 is pretty straightforward: "Unfortunately this means we will not be able to pay the past commissions due for October and November." Most of the time, the AM is fired just before declaring bankruptcy.
Just be very careful if a merchant is late paying you.

Or if they reverse like mad and then do the hop-skip to hide how bad it really is!

As I said in the other thread:

LOL glad I didn't follow 'em. I still think they went to Snare just so they could "clean" their batches of transactions, and pretend they weren't having any/as many reversals anymore (after getting an awful record as a major reversal-maniac when they were at CJ).

Originally Posted by Me, in June 2003

I wouldn't follow them to any maybe-pay network even if they claimed to be offering a 110% commission. I know I'd never see it, not from THAT deadbeat merchant...it'd be reversed down to practically nothing in no time, and I'd probably have to sue for the rest!

The only thing that surprises me about this one is that they made it so long without officially declaring bankruptcy and being sold off. 3 years from when I pronounced it Terminal, according to my quick search. Usually the zombie merchants stop staggering around sooner.

The only thing that surprises me about this one is that they made it so long without officially declaring bankruptcy and being sold off. 3 years from when I pronounced it Terminal, according to my quick search. Usually the zombie merchants stop staggering around sooner.

I had heard that M123 was getting bought out just a day after the announcement, and wasn't entirely surprised. Since I manage two competing programs (zzounds, samedaymusic), many of the affiliates I work with promote Music123 as well. I wanted to at least let them know that an announcement is coming, or provide some help switching out their links with our skus if they had to kill their M123 links. I reached out to the M123 AM who explained that "nothing will change, we'll continue to operate as we have, but we'll have Guitar Center as a parent"...

Now this news. Apparently the sale to Guitar Center wasn't finalized, and M123 is back on the auction block. Sad news, especially for affiliates.

Leader, kudos on the insight. You could give miss cleo a run for her money (oh wait, she went bankrupt too!) =)

Yeah I heard about the M123 bankruptcy not too long ago. If what Leader says is true, thats a pretty shady thing for a company to do. Congradulations to those who saw through this one and got out

Kevin Eaton
GoDirectMusic.com

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7%-10% commission on all sales, 60 day cookies, data feeds, phone tracking, no limits, no brainer. Affiliate yourself with the best in musical instruments and accessories, and pocket MORE with your page!

I wonder about the extent of all these poachers biting into Music123's own marketing efforts (seo, ppc, email, direct mail, catalogs, etc)... and how much it contributed to their failure.

When you pay out all that money to people doing nothing for you, it does affect your bottom line.

I can't believe it. I remember I quit working with them the day they switched to LinkShare, it was several years ago but I've no idea of the date. They had none of these thieves in their program.
I can't believe it because they were so cheap, always trying to reverse our commissions at CJ. I had a ton of traffic at that time, top positions for most Orchestra Instruments. Genuine, targeted traffic for their products.
I lost money by working with others but at that time I was too mad at LinkShare to follow them.
It should be a warning for other merchants, the traffic from these parasites is worth nothing.

I wonder about the extent of all these poachers biting into Music123's own marketing efforts

Good eyes, Donuts! Its too bad we couldn't see what their books look like when they went bankrupt. I bet their marketing spend looked ugly from having partners like that... Wouldn't it be nice to see how their performance and expenses changed as a result of those partnerships? It'd be one hell of a smoking gun to share with the merchants who are playing with those AssWare douchebags...

Its too bad we couldn't see what their books look like when they went bankrupt. I bet their marketing spend looked ugly from having partners like that... Wouldn't it be nice to see how their performance and expenses changed as a result of those partnerships? It'd be one hell of a smoking gun to share with the merchants who are playing with those AssWare douchebags...

There might be some way for creditors to get a look via the Bankruptcy Court. And any affiliates they still owe money to are legally "creditors" in such proceedings...